npmd is an alternative npm client that uses leveldb and local replication to
improve performance by eliminating unnecessary network round-trips.
It is intended for use in the antipodes, via 3g, in airplanes, submarines, up trees, and in caves.
But it is still faster if you live in california too.

npmd is based on the idea of eager replication.
All the npm metadata (package.json + readmes) are stored locally in leveldb.
(currently, with 44k modules this is about 260 mb)
when you type npmd install foo <enter> npmd resolves all the dependencies
from your local replica, without doing any network round-trips.
This is much faster than using npm, especially if you have a high latency internet connection.

A local database also enables npmd to provide offline search, and indexes all readmes.

and your package version will be stashed into a queue for local use. You can
npmd install yourpkg locally even if yourpkg isn't on the public npm yet.
You can even have multiple versions of your package queued up locally.